Recommendations for Teaching Carpentries Workshops Online

These recommendations rely on video conferencing, and we recognise that this may fail. We are not making specific recommendations for technologies or procedures to be used for backup planning at this time. This is something each instructional team should plan for independently. The Carpentries will be exploring avenues for asynchronous engagement for areas with regular disruptions in internet service. Teaching online is a challenge. We know this and we want to help you continue to build your skills and confidence as you transition what you learned in Instructor Training to teaching online. To that end, we created a 3.5 hour Instructor Training bonus module completely focused on teaching online. Our recommendations are focused on the leanest possible technology using systems we are already familiar with. While many other options exist and will likely make their way into our guidelines (e.g. additional tools, semi-synchronous approaches), we currently recommend procedures that are as close as possible to our standard practices for live instruction. Learning online is also a challenge. The most common barriers for learners are likely to be unreliable internet connections and the limitation of a small single screen. Instructors and learners should anticipate these problems. Software installation is a challenge even at in-person workshops, and issue resolution during an event is even more problematic online. We strongly recommend pre-workshop support with software installation and The Carpentries now provides cloud instances with pre-installed software as a last-resort backup for all core workshops.